Solomons Report

In February 2015, a crowdfunding campaign to create Permaculture Teacher Training Resources based on Rowe Morrow’s teacher training courses, successfully raised US$20,426 dollars (more than US$5,000 over its original goal), thanks to 145 generous contributors from around the world. The additional money raised is now funding a project in the Solomon Islands to assist communities affected by rising seas and climate disasters.

In the next few weeks we will also have completed the long awaited new digital book by Rowe: Permaculture Teaching Matters. It is a step-by-step teacher’s guide to teaching permaculture based on the curriculum of Rowe’s Teaching Permaculture Teachers Courses.

The next outcome of the Crowdfunding Campaign will be to upload a series of videos that provide additional support to permaculture teachers. As we are now shooting some extra footage, these will take a little longer than originally planned, but stay tuned! In the meantime, here’s an update on the Solomon’s Island project.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: THE STORY OF A LAGOON VILLAGE
An interim report about an island community and its adaptation to change by Rowe Morrow

We hope this project will be a model for other communities. Lagoon communities everywhere (like delta communities) are already under severe threat from climate change, storm surges and sea-level rises. Permaculture does not have a clear solution for them … and the solution is not simply to move people. We can’t, and they are not ready to go. So, with advice from villagers and village meetings, we received a proposal for a number of concrete steps to enable the villagers to improve the quality of their lives while offering more income strains so that they can eventually, as they must, move with confidence.